GPU Upgrade caused Choppy Gameplay

Hello,

I recently purchased an upgrade for my outdated system that Tom's Hardware had an article on, the Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB GDDR2. Please keep in mind that this is an AGP card.

First I will give you the stats:

MOBO: DFI 875P-T (Phoenix Award BIOS never updated since purchase) with an upgraded bios chip to support my processor
CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 GHz.
Memory: 2GB
HD: 320 Gb Seagate Baracuda 7200 RPM 3.0Gb/Sec xfer speed
GPU: Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB GDDR2 (GV-R465D2-1GI)


I was running the Radeon x900 xt platinum edition previous to my upgrade. If you need me to fetch further specs, I can do so.

Anyhow I opened up my case, dusted it out (esp around the AGP slot), took out the x900xt, dusted again, and installed the 4650. I made sure the power cords where also plugged in. I updated to the most recent drivers (still the ones on the CD) and fired up the infamous WoW. I did not change my video settings from what they were with my last GPU. The game runs choppy as hell. GPU LAG EVERYWHERE!!! Given that this is an old system I am not sure if I needed to do anything beyond installing the card and updating the drivers. I am running all the ATI utilities as well. I havent tweaked anything.

Anyone have any idea what is going on? This card should leave my old card in the dust. Obviously it isn't going be able to play GWAR on max settings, but I just want to play WoW and Titan Quest on normal settings!!!

I was just trying to figure out how the two cards stack up against each other. Using the Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart here at Tom's.

I can find the HD 4650 1GB GDDR2 on the list but there is no reference to the X900 XT. Could it be that the X900 XT is a better card then the HD 4650???

See chart here: http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 296-6.html

I think he's thinking of the X850XT, I'm unaware of any X900 series from ATI, and the only platinum editions were X850's (maybe an X800, too).

I went from an X850XT to an HD 4670, and my improvement has been vast. Roughly double performance in everything, but an HD 4650 (with DDR2 VRAM) is much worse. Try overclocking your memory and core, but I doubt you'll get far.

To put it short, your upgrade was pretty lateral, the HD 4600's don't have enough bandwidth to do exceedingly well, especially when you come from a higher end card (from the past).

Turn down AA, too, that might help.

AMG....

Ya gotta remember.... the OP is using an AGP card.....

I'm on old hardware as well.... runnin a Radeon X1950 Pro. Bought on e-bay cheap. Upgraded org video from onboard VIA solution.